Just the facts
To the publisher:
As the new executive director of the Louisiana Association of Educators, the largest teachers union/association in Louisiana, I would appreciate your correcting the facts regarding the so-called red tape reduction act [“Publisher’s View,” July 13].
LAE has not filed any suit as yet against the new law. The leadership and members always find it amusing when reports and reporters don’t find a need for accuracy. Your failure to check your facts before publishing your report seems to be directed more at painting all teachers and unions with a broad brush rather than reporting the facts.
We would welcome an opportunity to explain why we believe the act is an effort to move the conversation away from what it should be: the proper funding, staffing and assessment of our schools.
Michael A. Walker-Jones, Executive director, Louisiana Association of Educators
(Editor’s note: For a correction, please see page 6. Business Report regrets the error.)
To the publisher:
The biggest threats to the public school system in Baton Rouge are not the unions, or even state takeovers. It’s the current school board members.
Submitted online by kgs
Playing catch-up
To the editor:
The Green Light Plan has helped to provide much of the needed interior corridors in south Baton Rouge as well as some necessary projects in other areas of the city [“Random Thoughts,” July 13].
When they engineered interstates 10 and 12, the powers that be left us a huge mess. We’ve been paying for that mess ever since. The Mississippi River Bridge is a mess, the junction of I-10 and I-110 is a mess, and the I-10/I-12 split blocked south Baton Rouge at its heart.
Major thoroughfares connecting to I-10 and to I-12 were substandard. Look at Dalrymple, Perkins, Drusilla, Millerville, O’Neal Lane and Highland Road. Most of them remain two-lane streets.
The city sorely needs crossovers where you can get from one side of the interstate to the other without competing with traffic fighting to get on and off the highways. A crossover from Hennessy Boulevard to Corporate Boulevard would get traffic to and from the Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center area to midtown, and no one would have to fight the traffic on Essen Lane or College Drive.
I’m personally not in favor of connecting Pecue Lane to I-10. Four-lane Pecue and use it as a way to get from one part of Baton Rouge to another, not as a way to get onto the interstate. You could make it part of a beltway connecting the Highland Road/Perkins Road area with Stumberg Lane and the future Woman’s Hospital location.
I applaud Mayor [Kip] Holden’s efforts to take on the regional traffic problems. Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas were poorly represented when the interstate system was planned, and it’s past time we caught up.
Submitted online by citizen
Don’t close the book
To the editor:
Not only does eliminating LSU’s Library and Information Science program hurt higher education, it hurts all education in the state [“LIS’ last stand,” July 13]. Expanding education, particularly raising literacy rates, is a major prerequisite for economic and political development.
School and public librarians are integral to connecting children with books and learning, and increasing literacy. The poor parishes in Louisiana will not be able to afford to hire from out of state, and out-of-state librarians will not want to move to poor Louisiana parishes. We need a library school in the state.
Submitted online by anon
Alpha dog
To the editor:
The problem at Animal Control is not the budget, which is larger than in other cities per capita [“Dogged by controversy,” July 13]. The problem is leadership or, more precisely, the lack thereof. With effective leadership at the helm, there is no reason Baton Rouge can’t have an Animal Services department that we can be proud of and embrace. But that is not what we have. It is time to demand change.
Submitted online by anonymous1
